Bill aims to exempt volunteer fire departments from ACA mandate

December 13, 2013

MARTINSBURG - U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., and a bipartisan group senators have introduced legislation to exempt volunteer firefighters and first responders from the Affordable Care Act employee-mandate, the senator's office announced Thursday.

The Protect Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act amends the Affordable Care Act to make it clear that volunteer emergency service workers are not required to be counted as full-time equivalent employees for purposes of health care coverage.

Article Photos

Journal file photo by Ron Agnir

Volunteer fire companies may face new restrictions under the Affordable Care Act, causing concern among many lawmakers. Pictured above is a Bedington volunteer firefighter battling a blaze in 2010.

The U.S. Department of Labor classifies volunteer firefighters and first responders as volunteers, but under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Service, volunteer firefighters are technically employees if they're on the job more than 30 hours per week, thus making them subject to the Affordable Care Act's employee-mandate rules.

Some volunteer firefighters are nominally paid or not paid at all, and most volunteer first responders have other full-time employment. Many emergency response agencies do not have the resources to provide pay or benefits to volunteers.

"We all know that the main goal of the Affordable Care Act is to provide all Americans with accessible and affordable health care coverage," Manchin said in statement released by his office. "However, we also know that there have been many missteps and unintentional consequences during the implementation of this law. Due to a technical error that unintentionally penalizes volunteer fire departments, the law jeopardizes funding for training and emergency response hours by imposing unreasonable burdens on many of our volunteer emergency response agencies."

Manchin said the bipartisan fix makes sure there is a clear distinction between full-time, paid emergency responders and volunteers so that emergency response teams can keep their communities safe without the threat of reducing necessary funding for training or emergency response hours.

This legislation has been endorsed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs, National Volunteer Fire Council and Congressional Fire Services Institute.

"This is a bipartisan issue which could have serious impacts on staffing at fire departments across the United States," said Chief William Metcalf, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. "The IAFC looks forward to working with Congress and the Administration to help ensure fire departments of all types are able to continue saving lives and serving their communities."

Manchin's press secretary, Katie Longo, said Thursday that the IRS has yet to finalize its description of what a full-time work week is, but - under the Affordable Care Act - full-time employees are considered those who work 30 hours or more.

"Even though a lot of these fire departments have employees who work 30 hours or more, they're just on call and they also have full-time employment elsewhere," Longo said.

She said the senators are proactively trying to fix any problems that may arise and are trying to make sure that volunteer fire departments won't have to choose between providing funding for their departments and providing health care for volunteers. As the Affordable Care Act is written now, volunteer fire departments could be forced to pay penalties for not providing volunteers with health care coverage even if those volunteers, many of whom have regular full-time jobs, already have health care coverage through their employers.

"It would be a waste of money and they would have to do it because of the 30-hour provision of the Affordable Care Act. Essentially, they wouldn't give them additional health care because people already have it, but they would have to pay the penalty for not giving their employees health care," said Longo. "It really was just a technical flaw in the language of the bill that we are fixing. It was kind of an unintentional consequence that came out."

The employer mandate requires employers with more than 50 workers to provide health care coverage for employees, which would include volunteer fire departments where 50 or more people work full-time either as volunteers or employees.

Greg Rhoe, chairman of the Berkeley County Fire Board, said Thursday that from what he called superficial research into the issue, it appears to him that it's a regulation that can be easily addressed.

"My interpretation of it is actually there are conflicting views even among the regulatory authorities. Certain regulatory authorities believe it doesn't apply to volunteer fire departments in the first place. Others feel there is nothing in the language that exempts the IRS from making an assertion that ACA applies to volunteer fire departments," said Rhoe. "I'm not enough of an expert on it one way or another to know who is right and who is wrong, but I would think there is a great deal of likelihood that it would be straightened out."

He said that since a vast majority of communities rely on volunteer fire service, he feels there is a high degree of probability any issues would be addressed without a detrimental impact to fire companies.

"If the regulations don't get straightened out, obviously it is a concern. We do not have the funding and there is not a volunteer fire department in Berkeley County or anywhere else, certainly in West Virginia, that would have the funding to be able to either, A, address providing health care coverage for volunteer members or, B, be able to pay the fine should they be deemed to be required to provide it," said Rhoe. "Certainly, if it is not addressed, it could put volunteer companies out of business."

Jefferson County Commission President Dale Manuel said Thursday was the first time he had heard of the issue, but said it could be problematic for fire companies to be able to provide the necessary revenue to provide health insurance for all of their volunteers.

"I'm sure that volunteer companies would like to do that, but it's just not cost-effective. They wouldn't be able to do that for their volunteers. I'm sure that Sen. Manchin has researched the issue and if he has corrective legislation, I think that would be a good thing," said Manuel. "I absolutely think that the threat would be real if we don't in some way alter the situation. It would be a financial crisis for volunteer fire companies."

Berkeley County Councilman Doug Copenhaver also said Thursday that it was the first time he had heard of the possible issue.

"From what I understand, if the health care act is going to force anybody to pay employee health benefits for volunteers if they are not working somewhere else, then that would be a financial difficulty, but at the same time I do think at that point in time volunteers would not be able to volunteer more than 30 hours," Copenhaver said.